Page 10 of Off-Limits to the Grizzly

I swallow hard. This is like the Mr Johnson of old.

Only now, my body is responding in a very different way. Somehow, I kinda like the thought of him bossing me around. Telling me what’s best for me.

He bounds to his feet in that agile way of his, and strides out of the room. “Sleep in the main bedroom if you want,” he calls over his shoulder.

I frown. “But isn’t that yours—?”

The front door slams shut.

And I’m alone.

I stare at the photo of Kayla and me for a long, long time.

I’ve got feelings for your father,I tell her silently.Very inappropriate feelings.

And what the hell am I going to do about that?

4

Zachary

I’m gone a long while, because the traffic was heavy, then I was an age in the supermarket, figuring out what Blair might want to eat. When I get back to the cabin, I park up fifty yards away and walk the rest of the way. I don’t want to risk waking her up if she’s still sleeping.

The moment the little log building comes into view, I feel my beast fighting for dominance. Nostrils snuffling hungrily, claws tearing at the dirt in its impatience to get back. To get to Blair.

I shove it back down, self-disgust pouring through me.

These feelings for Blair aren’t wholesome. Aren’t right.

She’s a kid I’m watching out for.

This is wrong, all the way to hell and back.

Not a kid. A grown woman, my animal reminds me.

I snarl at it. She is a woman, though. However hard I’ve tried not to look, Blair’s ripe curves are any man’s dream. That perfect hourglass figure; the flash of cleavage at the neck of her shirt. Those full, pouting lips. She’s so lush and tempting. Like a juicy peach, just about to drop off a tree.

Honey-sweet and begging to be touched.

For years, I’ve been looking out for her from a distance, telling myself that the magnetic pull I felt toward her was platonic. But now I’m up close to her, it’s on a whole other level.

It’s consuming. It’s like nothing else in the world exists, but her. My eyes seek her out constantly. My hands ache to touch her velvety skin. My lips burn to press against hers. This is nothing I’ve felt before. I want to possess her. Make her a part of me. Need and longing rush through my veins endlessly.

The whole time I was driving to the store, shopping for stuff and coming back again, she was all I could think about. Every moment was full of memories, impressions of her. Her sweet scent, her mischievous laugh. The way she looks at me sometimes, kind of stunned. Damn. I’m obsessed.

But hasn’t that been the truth for years? Hasn’t she been my number one priority, ever since Kayla left?

I just hadn’t expected it to turn into something physical. Sexual.

I walk along the paving stones to the front of the cabin, listening for her. It’s all quiet though, and the cabin is dark inside. She must still be sleeping, poor thing, exhausted after last night’s drama.

I go around to the back, treading carefully through the deep layer of fall leaves. There’s a nip in the air; the first snow of the season will be coming soon. I check the log walls as I go. I’ve made sure the cabin is well insulated, but now Blair is staying here, I’m gonna make sure it’s the coziest log cabin that ever was. She deserves every little bit of comfort she’s missed out on in her life so far.

When I approach the window of the main bedroom—my bedroom—I hear the sound of her breathing. But it’s quicker than I would’ve expected. Is she having a nightmare or something?

I take another step and peer through the darkened glass…

And my eyes just about fall out of my head.

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